SK hynix's Record $26.5B US IPO

On July 10, a South Korean company that nearly went bankrupt in 2001 completed the largest foreign IPO in US history. SK hynix raised $26.5 billion in its Nasdaq debut, selling 177.9 million American depositary receipts (ADRs), a US-listed stand-in for a foreign share, at $149 each. Each ADR represents a tenth of a Seoul-listed share. Demand was more than seven times what was on offer, drawing over 500 investment firms, according to the Financial Times. Not bad for a business that posted a heavy annual loss just two years ago.

The stock is trading temporarily under the ticker SKHYV before regular-way trading begins as SKHY on Monday, July 13. So what turned this company into one of the hottest names on the market? Three letters: HBM.

What SK hynix actually makes

SK hynix is the world's leading producer of high-bandwidth memory, or HBM. That is a mouthful, so here is the plain version: HBM is computer memory chips stacked vertically like a tiny apartment tower, which lets data move much faster than traditional flat memory layouts. That speed matters enormously for AI accelerators, the specialized chips that train and run large AI models. In short, HBM has become critical plumbing for the AI boom, and SK hynix sells more of it than anyone.

The company is not shy about where the IPO money is going. It plans to pour the proceeds into expanding AI-memory manufacturing. Confirmed projects include the first phase of a fab at the enormous Yongin semiconductor cluster in South Korea, a new advanced-packaging line called P&T7 in Cheongju, and EUV lithography machines (the extremely precise, expensive tools used to etch the tiniest chip features) due by the end of next year.

A US factory too

There is an American piece as well. SK hynix is building its first US production site, a $4 billion advanced-packaging plant in West Lafayette, Indiana, targeted for completion around 2028. The facility is eligible for up to $458 million in CHIPS Act grants and up to $570 million in federal loans. Advanced packaging is the step where individual chips are assembled and connected into a finished product, and it is increasingly where a lot of the engineering happens.

Why the market is so excited

The numbers behind the enthusiasm are striking. SK hynix is reportedly on track to post over 200 trillion won, roughly $133 billion, in operating profit this year. If that holds, employees are said to be in line for bonuses of around $400,000 each. The Seoul-listed stock is up about 220% so far this year and has climbed more than sixfold over the past year.

In late June, SK hynix briefly overtook Samsung as South Korea's most valuable company, closing at around 2,080 trillion won, about $1.35 trillion. That is a notable turnaround for a company that came close to bankruptcy in 2001 and recorded a 7.73 trillion won operating loss as recently as 2023.

A quick caveat worth keeping in mind: the $133 billion profit figure is a projection, not an audited result, and the bonus estimates are reported rather than confirmed by the company. The broader trend, though, is clear enough. Demand for AI memory is running far ahead of supply.

What's next

Here is the detail that says the most about the moment. SK hynix has said its entire 2026 output of HBM, DRAM, and NAND is already sold out, with the crunch expected to stretch into 2027. When a manufacturer has sold next year's production before it has even been made, the constraint is not customers. It is capacity.

That is why $26.5 billion is heading straight into fabs, packaging lines, and lithography gear. The bet is straightforward: AI models keep getting bigger, bigger models need more fast memory, and whoever can build that memory fastest wins. The interesting question for the next couple of years is whether SK hynix can add capacity quickly enough to ease the crunch, or whether rivals like Samsung and Micron close the gap while it tries. Either way, the memory that feeds AI has become one of the most valuable commodities in tech.